chrb writes: The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project — an independent study of Earth's historical temperature record partly funded by climate sceptics including the Koch brothers — has released preliminary results that show the same warming trend as previous research. Project leader and physics professor Richard Muller, of the University of California, has stated that he was "surprised" at the close agreement, and it "confirms that these studies were done carefully". The study also found that warming in the temperature record was not caused by poor quality weather monitoring stations — thus rejecting a frequent claim of sceptics. Climate sceptic Stephen McIntyre has previously said "anything that [Muller] does will be well done" So, does this finally settle the argument over whether global warming is real?